Category Archives: The Farmer Newsletter

Farmer-Feb28-2005





Volume 8

Volume 8, Number
5                                           
February 28, 2005

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

"The Farm is the engine of our national life."

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

Minister Farrakhan told me to tell you that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "The farm is
the engine of our national life."

The engine of our nation is what pushes the nation forward. Without the farm we are lost. Without
agriculture we have nothing. Because of the bad treatment under slavery and under the sharecropping
system, our elders left the land seeking a better life in the cities. They left with a bad taste in
their mouth, so that when schemes were fashioned to take the land from them, they did not put up a
real fight. They took the little money and let the land go.

The national life includes food, clothing and shelter. You can get all of these, if you have the
land. However, most of the countries in Africa import their food from their former colonial or slave
master. No nation can truly be free with its mouth in the kitchen of their former colonial masters.

We need the land not only for economic development and wealth, but our very health depends on it.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us the "Economic Blueprint" in Message to the Black
Man, and he gave us a pattern to sustain our lives in "How to Eat to Live". America has
forced many of us off the land. America is now forcing many countries to destroy their seed and buy
seed from American companies. Why?

As the value of money goes down platinum, gold and silver go up. But these minerals are just a
means of exchange. You can not eat, wear, live in or ride platinum, gold or silver. You must
exchange these items for the land and the means of extracting and processing the raw materials from
the land to make the items of necessity.

Real value rests in land, seeds, clay and trees.

Since our elders never got the real value for their work on the land, we have now lost respect
for the land. Where will you work and live tomorrow? What are you doing to insure your future or do
you still think that America will find a way for you?

We at Muhammad Farms under the Three Year Economic Savings Program, Inc are striving to prepare a
future for our people. Allah (God) blessed Minister Farrakahn through the charitable contributions
to both the Three Year fund and the 2004 Saviours’ Day gift to retire the mortgage on the farm in
April of last year. On his visit to the farm after paying off the mortgage, he told us that it is
now time for economic development.

Part of our development will include facilities, activities, training and other programs to
introduce our "city cousins" to a sustainable way of life. Owning farm land is truly a
step towards independence. We are in the process of installing the latest state-of-the-art
irrigation system to make our farm both more productive and an example to other Black farmers what
can be done without government assistance, but with the support of the masses of our people.

Our next steps include the development of value added processing and storage facilities to
transform our raw products into items that we can ship direct to our customers in the cities.

Our motto is "from the land to the man" and no middle man. A farmer receives a mere
$2.50 per bushel of wheat, barely covering the costs for growing the wheat. However, the consumer
pays at least $80 per bushel. How does this happen, you may ask?

A bushel of wheat is 56 lbs from which a baker can make at least 40 loaves of bread. If he sells
a loaf for $2.00, he stands to make about $80 (40 times $2). Where does the other $77.50 go that the
farmer did not receive for that bushel of wheat?

The companies in the middle between the farmer and the consumer, including trucking firms, flour
mills, storage facilities, bakers, wholesalers and retailers pocket that money. This is why the farm
is the engine for the rest of the economy. Not only does the farmer feed the people, he supplies the
raw ingredients that allow others to get rich. When you support the Three Year Economic Savings
Program you are helping to develop an alternative production and distribution system that will get
around the middle man and provide Muhammad Farms and other Black farmers, direct access to customers
in the cities.

The Ministry of Agriculture for the Nation of Islam is promoting the development of
community-owned and controlled cooperatives in the cities. Each mosque and study group was recently
asked to send a representative to the Agricultural conference sponsored by the Ministry of
Agriculture at the farm in Georgia.

We were most inspired by Believers in Cincinnati and Atlanta who were both in their second year
of running their community-based cooperatives. Both of these groups started off with a very limited
budget and no facilities to speak of. However, they are swiftly moving to a point to where their
collective efforts, perseverance and patience will reward them in having permanent facilities. When
they open their doors to the public, they will already have a number of families serving as a
guaranteed customer-base to keep their doors open and allow them to hire young people in their
communities and provide a future for their children.

We video taped the conference and recommend that any city that wants to develop a cooperative get
one of these tapes in order to study how to be successful.

A 1,600 acre farm, like our farm in Georgia, at best can provide 5,000 people with enough food
for one meal a day each year. However, there are over 40 million Black people in America. To feed
them, if they don’t eat meat requires 6.3 million acres of land. To farm this land successfully we
need $2 billion in equipment and 18,000 farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture continues to interact with the larger Black farm and college
communities to help us save our remaining 3 million acres of land and put our farmers back to
farming instead of renting their land. We continue to help them fight the U.S. Department of
Agriculture through our participation in the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.

We are also on the board of the recently organized Black Family Land Trust, which is developing
financial tools and resources to help Black people keep and develop their land. We are also active
on the campuses where we show our young people the relationship between land ownership and economic
development.

We give the equation Knowledge + Land + Capital=Power. During the first 45 years after slavery,
Black people used the land and its products to develop a nation within a nation in the South. Blacks
were buying land, creating inventions, manufacturing products, building schools, hospitals and
homes; setting up banks and insurance companies. When America had the first national census in 1900
and followed it up in 1910, America got frightened over our development. So frightened were they
that they lynched us, bombed us and legislated us out of business.

Now we must take the lessons from our past and use the courage from the faith in God and buy
land, develop our skills, save and invest our money to build a glorious future for ourselves and our
children.

Farmer-Feb21-2002





Volume 5

Volume 5, Number
13                                              
February 21, 2002

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

The Geopolitics of Ignorance

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

 

What are the real reasons for this so called "war on terrorism"? In a 2.5 hour stream
of wisdom pouring into 20,000 eager vessels, Min. Louis Farrakhan gave a high tech geopolitical
answer to this question at the Western Forum in LA on February 17th. At the heart of that answer was
America’s insatiable desire for oil. He revealed that "America is an oil junky" willing
to lie, steal and even kill to get that fix.

Min. Farrakhan used computer graphics displayed on two large screens to deliver to Black people
what they had been too lazy or too scared to discover for themselves. Many Black people had no idea
about the great oil deposits north of Afghanistan. Many Black people never questioned what was
beneath the soil in Libya, Sudan, Iran and Iraq. Most Black people whose parents owned land in the
South never thought to get a geological survey of that property before they sold it for pennies. The
full speech can be viewed at : http://finalcall.com/media/sd2002_02-17-2002.htm
.

Not only did they give up their land for pennies, but they are easily deceived when evaluating
the value of land to human life. Food for many of them comes from the stores, so who needs farmers.
They look at a leader like President Mugabe in Zimbabwe and think, " why would a man risk the
sanctions of America just to run a few white people off of their land?"

Black people are being asked to participate in more radical politics and help fight
Globalization, the IMF, the WTO and other acronyms representing the new world order mentality. I
recently received an issue of "Toward Freedom" bi-montly magazine that has been in
existence for 50 years promoting "a progressive perspective on world events." Some of the
articles I found enlightening such as "Enron’s Global Game" and "Big Brother is
Back". However, as a Black person there was a very disturbing article that made the front page
of this magazine, "Mugabe’s Last Stand: The anatomy of a rigged next election", written
by Jamal Jafari.

In this article he implies that President Mugabe is a tyrant, his land reform is a failure and
the coming elections will be rigged. Jafari writes, "This highly organized campaign of violence
and repression is designed to deal with an opposition party that embraces peace, democracy, and
human rights, and a civil society clamoring for change and respect for the rule of law." It
seems that Mr. Jafari embraces the sanctions leveled against Zimbabwe by America under this same
guise of "respect for the rule of law". America has condemned Mugabe for
"unlawfully" taking farm land from some 4,000 white farmers.

Jafari collects incidents of "violence" and "terrorism" to portray President
Mugabe as a thug, then ends by writing, "…the only question remaining is whether history will
remember him as a Slobodan Milosevic or an Idi Amin." Is there no middle ground here or will it
depend on who writes that history, Zimbabweans or outsiders?

Fortunately, I was at the National Black Land Loss Summit held in Atlanta on February 9, 2002
where I was able to record the 45 minute expose of the Zimbabwean land crisis by the Honorable Simbi
Mubako, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the US The full contents of that address is presented in a three
hour video tape highlighting the conference entitled, "Steps
to Healing the Land
".

According to Mr. Mubako, Zimbabwe’s land crisis began in 1895 when the European powers set down
to partition Africa among themselves. Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Namibia went to
Britain. The Europeans first entered the land looking for mineral resources. They did not find as
much gold as they had anticipated so they turned to grabbing land and practicing "ethnic
cleansing" to secure it. Instead of paying their soldiers in gold, they paid them in land.
White British soldiers who fought in World Wars I and II were given the best farm land in Zimbabwe
while the Black soldiers were given bicycles. Over time this gift to white British soldiers grew to
46.6% of Zimbabwe’s agricultural land and was comprised of the best land.

Eventually Africans began to fight to expel the colonial powers. And in Algeria and Angola the
indigenous people obtained a total military victory and kicked all foreigners out and seized their
land. However, Kenya and Zimbabwe had partial military victories but the British negotiated a peace
before total destruction and this was the downfall of Zimbabwe. President Mugabe agreed to a scheme
of orderly transition and paid the price for trusting the British and Americans.

At the time of Zimbabwe’s fight for liberation from the colonial rule of Britain, the white
population was 60,000 while Black population of Zimbabwe was 12,500,000. Of the 60,000 whites only
4,000 were farmers, but that class owned 46.7% of Zimbabwe’s farm land. These white farmers held
40% of their land for speculative purposes and did not farm them, but would not lease them out to
Blacks to grow food. The "mystery" of Blacks starving in Africa is now revealed; whites
own the best agricultural land.

Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, and America, under Jimmy Carter, agreed in 1980 to provide the
liberated colony of Zimbabwe with $2 billion to buy the land from the white settlers who did not pay
a dime for this land. This land would then be turned over

to Zimbabwe to be dispersed to her landless poor and former liberation fighters. Britain and
America reneged. And now after 20 years, the people of Zimbabwe warned President Mugabe that they
were ready to seize the land that was rightfully theirs in an orderly or disorderly manner,
depending on the government’s decision. The government of Zimbabwe bowed to the wishes of her
people, so land reform is now almost 90% complete.

The opposite perspective on land reform accuses Mugabe as trumping up the land issue as a way to
gain votes. However, Ambassador Mubako related a story which contradicts such charges. Mugabe’s
political party had a conference and one of the delegates who was also an ex-combatant rose up and
stated his case:

"Comrade President we must remind you that we fought the liberation war for majority rule
and the recovery of our land from the white settlers. We got majority rule 19 years ago, but we have
not recovered our land back now. You always told us to be patient and wait for orderly
redistribution of the funds from Britain. We obeyed you. When people moved in to occupy the land as
Chief Shoshet’s people had recently done, you ordered them to vacate. They obeyed you. Now Britain
has finally abandoned the land reform program and 19 years of our lives are gone. And still we have
no land and no jobs. You were taken for a ride by the British. For their cousins are still occupying
our land while we go hungry. Comrade President, this time we will take the land and when you tell us
to leave, we will disobey you."

The situation in South Africa is even graver. At the end of minority rule in 1994 whites
represented only 10 percent of the population but controlled 87% of the land. The land area under
the control of whites is much larger than in Zimbabwe and the total population in South Africa is
now 44 million instead of 12 million as in Zimbabwe. This is why America and Britain are so
concerned about what happens in Zimbabwe, because if not handled correctly South Africa could
explode and the whites could lose a tremendous amount of capital investments.

So as America continues her propaganda assault on President Mugabe and pushes the world towards
Armageddon in the name of fighting terrorism, hopefully Minister Farrakhan will be around long
enough to keep the "ostriches" informed. Because while you stick your head in the sand you
leave vital organs exposed. In other words, you can’t protect your backside by being a
"geopolitical idiot".

Imam Warith Deen Mohammed admonished the Muslims on Friday, February 15th, to remember that the
first word revealed to Prophet Muhammad 1400 years ago was "READ". And be sure to read
more than one source for news. For as Minister Farrakhan stated on Sunday, February 17th, "One
man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter."

The need for guidance will become even more crucial as the US begins to play this
"reparations" game. The US never responded to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s request
for land as the center of a genuine reparations package. Now slick lawyers are letting the Federal
government off the hook by focusing on corporations from whom only a monetary reward can be garnered
for a very limited clientele. It would be quite informative to read USA Today’s February 21st
front page article "Activists challenge corporations that they say are tied to slavery"
and then review my article and documentary "Snake in the reparations’
grass
". There is a difference between the wisdom of "activists" infiltrated by
"snakes " seeking gold and the wisdom of one guided by God such as Minister Louis
Farrakhan seeking freedom "in deed".

Peace, Doc

Farmer-Feb25-2003





Volume 6

Volume 6, Number
11                                 
February 25, 2003

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

Who Will Restore "Democracy"?

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

"War is not the answer", "Not in our names" and other anti-war slogans are
NOW heard around the world coming from millions of mostly so-called white people. Those of us who
follow Minister Louis Farrakhan first heard these words coming from his mouth starting on October
16, 2001 not long after 9/11. While America was ostensibly getting ready for a war on
"terror" and a manhunt for Osama bin Ladin, Min. Farrakhan was already warning Mr. Bush
against the war that America intends to wage against Iraq, even before Pres. Bush had revealed those
intentions to the American public.

Min. Farrakhan is his 2003 Saviours’ Day address asked Mr. Bush why has he not brought him
(Min. Farrakhan) to Washington on charges of "treason" since he dared to tell the world
what the government was intending to do before the "government" revealed such "secret
plans" to its own people. That is a good question. Let’s look at some other facts that may
have gone under the radar of public notice that may help answer this question.

Remember the year 2000 presidential campaign and the question of what was the real count? While
people were analyzing the "State of the Union" address on January 28th, the presentation
of Colin Powell to the U.N. on February 5th and the loss of the Columbia on February 1st, there was
a politically earth shattering piece of news that received no major media attention. Two articles
taken off the Internet are important: "Senator Hagel Admits Owning Voting Machine Company"
(January 29, 2003) and "If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
(January 31, 2003). You can find both of these articles posted on the "News"
section of www.MuhammadFarms.com
. A quote from the first article reveals:

"Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has ties to the largest
voting machine company, Election Systems & Software
(ES&S).
She (Bev Harris) reported that he was an owner, Chairman and CEO
of
Election Systems & Software (called American Information
Systems
until name change filed in 1997). ES&S was the ONLY
company
whose machines counted Hagel’s votes when he ran for
election in
1996 and 2002."

This article further states that; "ES&S counts approximately 60 percent of all votes
cast in the United States." The contents of the second article is all in its title "If You
Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines".

So in other words a Republican Senator was an owner of the machines that elected himself as
Senator from Nebraska and George W. Bush as president of the US. Well "isn’t that
special?" When these stories broke, I told my wife: "Watch, a whole lot of stuff is going
to take up the front page of mass media, so that this doesn’t get out."

In the meantime back at the ranch the Texas based utility rustlers got away with the loot.
According to National Public Radio, Enron did not pay income taxes from 1996 to 1999 getting away
with $2 billion. In a February 23rd article from Pakistan entitled, "Enron: Under Cover of Dark
and the War", Enron executives pleaded guilty and admitted that in the summer of 2001
"energy traders” like Enron created a phony "energy crisis” in California and took the
public for millions; and we might add while Bush, Cheney and friends looked on and got rich. How
rich we may never know because, "GOP Threats Halted GAO Cheney Suit" according to this
February 19th TheHill.com article. It seems that the Republican controlled Appropriations Committee
threatened to reduce the budget of the GAO if they continued to force Vice-president Cheney to
reveal who was on his energy advisory "focus group". How convenient?

Who will restore democracy? Now back to the war, I noticed that none of the political
commentators noticed the behavior of the four Joint Chiefs of the military, (Army, Navy, Air Force,
and Marines) as President Bush gave his "State of the Union" address. When Mr. Bush
mentioned protecting America from terrorists and other threats, the four Joint Chiefs of the
military stood up and applauded. Whenever, Mr. Bush mentioned a pre-emptive strike against Iraq,
each of the four chiefs set down with their left hand over their right. I am not a military man, but
I knew that this was some type of signal that other generals in other countries would understand.

A week later members of NATO bucked Bush on a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Could the generals
in Europe have taken this behavior of the four chiefs as a signal that "We are soldiers for
America and will die for our country, but you do not have to"? This line of reasoning is backed
up from a January 22, 2003 article from www.capitalhillblue.com entitled, "Role reversal: Bush
wants war, Pentagon urges caution", which stated that one of the Joint Chiefs had warned Bush
that this was not "Desert Storm" and that America needed more support from her allies
before invading another country. An angry Rumsfeld, who backs Bush without question, is said to have
told the Joint Chiefs "to get in line or find other jobs."

In the meantime, Rep. John Conyers and others are trying to warn the American people about the
loss of more constitutional rights under the proposed "Patriot Act 2" that this
administration is trying to slide in under the cover of war. Please read, "Objection to USA
Patriot Act 2" on www.MuhammadFarms.com, "News", before your
citizenship is removed and you become a non-person.

It is my understanding that the military is supposed to protect the constitution and also obey
the "Commander in Chief". But what if the "Commander in Chief" stole the
election by fixing the count, is waxing rich off of peacetime and wartime business deals, and is now
trashing the constitution? Who does the military then owe its allegiance? Who will restore
democracy?

Now we may have a clearer picture as to why this administration dare not accuse Min. Farrakhan of
"treason". Instead we should ask, will the real "patriot" stand up?

Farmer-Feb12-2003





Volume 6

Volume 6, Number
10                                  
February 12, 2003

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

"Good News" from the Black Land Loss Summit

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

 

The Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) held its Annual Meeting on February
8, 2003 at the Dudley Inn & Conference Center, Kernersville, North Carolina in conjunction with
the National Black Land Loss Summit.
The BFAA membership held
elections where Tom Burrell and Gary R. Grant were nominated for Chairman/President. 
Subsequently Gary R. Grant was re-elected as Chairman/President and Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad
was elected the Vice-Chairman . Seven other Board Members were elected from among the twelve states
and the District of Columbia present for the meeting. (pictures)

Immediately following the membership meeting, President Grant called the BFAA Board to order and
they unanimously agreed to seek Stephon Bowens and the Land Loss Prevention Project (LLPP) to become
the legal counsel for BFAA. Attorney Bowens accepted this request. 

After the elections President Gary Grant sent a letter to the USDA informing them that more
progress should have already been made with the proposed "Memorandum of Understanding"
initiated in July of 2002. Mr. Grant continued by saying, "Significant issues such as
administrative setoffs, acceleration, and foreclosures still plague the few remaining Black farmers.
Given the great need of the Black farmers and your administration’s continued commitment to
improved service delivery, much can be accomplished despite the lapse of time since our last
meeting."

Before this national meeting of BFAA the USDA had feigned confusion over who was in control of
BFAA. This allowed them to postpone promised relief measures for the Black farmers in the Pigford v.
Glickman (now Veneman) class action lawsuit and other areas. BFAA has been in a pitted struggle with
the USDA since 1998. However, members of BFAA have not let the USDA completely consume them in a one
pronged attack.

BFAA in conjunction with the Land Loss Fund, Concerned Citizens of Tillery, Muhammad Farms and
North Carolina A&T State University’s School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
combined efforts to put on what Mr. John Raye, Regional Director for MATAH, as a "most eye
opening display of information and problem solving." Unlike many conferences which get
"experts" to talk at the problem. This conference put "experts" in contact with
the people who had the problems and together they began to work up solutions and develop ongoing
relationships to continue the process of "controlling our destiny from the land to the
man", the theme of this year’s conference.

For instance, Attorney Rose Sanders brought information on land availability for Black farmers in
South Africa. Min. Akbar Muhammad, International Representative of the Nation of Islam, demonstrated
how oil played a key role in the destabilization of western and southern Africa. He also went into
the details of the situation in Zimbabwe. At the end of the question and answer period, Min. Akbar
caucused with Black farmer interested in going with him to Zimbabwe in the near future on a fact
finding tour.

The workshop entitled "Direct Marketing Opportunities for Country and City Cousins"
brought together and illustrious panel including, Vernon Switzer, vegetable farmer, Al Wellington,
Co-Founder of MATAH, John Raye, master salesman and motivational speaker, Marcus Bernard, Marketing
Agent for Glory Foods, and Bill Jackson, entrepreneur out of Chicago. They and the audience talked
about the question of how to get produce from Black farmers into the hands of Black consumers. This
feedback process introduced both sides of the problem, supply and demand, to each other within a
framework of problem solving. At the end a plan of action of establishing produce markets in the
major cities along with developing processed items for direct marketing channels was developed and
an ongoing committee established. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad read a letter from a Black Wall Street
investment firm pledging their financial support to projects developed by this group.

In the area of Black land loss Attorneys Stephon Bowens and Gil Livingston along with Gary Grant
introduced a new non-profit corporation called the Black Family Land Trust. The Black Family Land
Trust, Inc. will bring real dollars to the aid of Black families in jeopardy of losing their land.
New an innovative methods of "conservation easements" will be used to get funds in the
hands of landowners while still leaving them title and control over the land as long as it is used
for agricultural related purposes.

Many people had heard about Cuba’s offer to open her markets to Black farmers. However, this
conference brought together Mr. Daniel Brow, President of Progressive International Trading Company,
Marcus Bernard, Marketing Agent for Glory Foods, Dr. John O’Sullivan, Extension Marketing
Specialist, NCA&T and Savanah Williams, farmer from Virginia who analyzed this opportunity and
developed strategies to make it happen. The audience got a rare glimpse of what it takes to make
hopes into realities instead of complaints about fallen dreams.

Many farmers have found that operating large farms may not be as profitable as operating on
smaller farms, but with an eye to location and esthetic demands of the consumers. Agri-tourism,
heritage and eco-tourism were discussed as new and emerging alternatives to industrialized
agriculture. James Frazier of Barefoot Farms on St. Helena Island, SC presented aspects of his
tourist and educational oriented farm which he established right in the middle of a major tourist
corridor. The keys to the success of this type of operation can be capsulated with three words:
"location, location, location".

Stephon Bowens was the surprised recipient of the annual "The Man Called Mathew Award"
given to the one person that best exemplified the spirit of Mr. Mathew Grant, an agricultural and
community warrior from the New Deal Resettlement Community of Tillery, Halifax County, NC. Dr.
Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad received a special award for "Keeping Us Organized In True
American Radicalism And The Revival Of The Spirit" from the Land Loss Fund. I guess this award
is given to the most "radical" one (smile).

The weekend was capped off by an outpouring of unity and spiritual rejuvenation by a Christian
Minister, Dr. Marcus Tillery, and a Muslim Minister, Min. Willie Muhammad. The Black farm movement
for justice has been fought through trials, tribulations and betrayals. However, Min. Tillery warned
"Pharaoh", President Bush, that the army of Gideon was on its way back to the "Big
House" with a message of liberation. "We have wrestled with the angel as did Paul. And as
Paul would not be satisfied with just getting to Damascus but had to go all the way to Rome, the 30
pieces of silver had delayed us but will not prevent us from arriving in the modern Rome,
Washington, DC."

Min. Willie, who spoke on behalf of the Honorable Min. Louis Farrakhan, described those in the
movement as one of three types, "believers, disbelievers and hypocrites." He warned that
these three would always be among us, but not to fear the backbiting of the hypocrite, because after
the pain one will find true brotherhood among the true believers. He ended by saying, "This is
a new beginning. We must cast off the shoes of derisiveness, confusion and backbiting, for now we
stand on Holy Ground."

Farmer-Feb11-2002





Volume 5

Volume 5, Number
12                                                
February 11, 2002

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

The "Law" of No-Land

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

The theme of "Steps to Healing the Land" was forcefully presented by Gary Grant,
President of BFAA, at the 4th National Black Land Loss Summit held in Atlanta, February 8-10, 2002.
Mr. Grant emphasized the importance of land ownership and what the lack of such would mean to Black
people in the 21st century.

According to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in "Message to the Black Man", "We want
freedom IN DEED" "IN DEED" to him meant a "deed" on a piece of land.

He and his followers did just that in the state of Alabama in 1961. However, that state declared
a "legal war" on these land sales according to a book called "The Messenger" by
Earl Evanzz. This war was successful in part because a 1961 state law made it "illegal for a
Muslim to remain in Alabama more than a few days without registering his presence and disclosing ‘such
matters as finances and membership roll.’" It seems that Alabama had some
"anti-terrorists" provisions long before the birth of the "Al Qaeda" (smile).

Of course the Muslim followers of Elijah Muhammad were taught then, and now, not to carry
weapons. However, violence was not what whites in Alabama, and southern whites in general, were
afraid of. They simply would use any means necessary, legal or non-legal method to deny progressive
Black people land. Of course one might naively say, "well them Blacks should stay good
Christians, then they would have no problems with whites." Oh, please! These series of articles
that I have written under the rubric of "The Farmer Newsletter" since 1997 and the AP
series entitled "Torn from the land" clearly show that good Christian Black people were
torn and terrorized from the land. In fact history shows that the "law of the land" in
America since 1865 has been the "law of no-land" for her former slaves.

Over a hundred participants came out representing 16 states, the District of Columbia and one
African nation. According to their testimonies given on Sunday morning, they were completely floored
by the wealth of information that flowed in these proceedings. The proceedings were video taped and
will be made available to the public in the near future. I have enough materials to fill a series of
articles, and we will begin to share those with you.

According to the participants they were made aware of a "war" on a broad scale which
they as individuals had seen waged on themselves and their family members. However, they felt
isolated and alone until this point. The participants were also delighted to leave the conference
with more than just an in-depth knowledge of the problems, but with specific doable methods to stem
the tide of land loss, fight the system and "heal the land". Those strategies will unfold
as time goes on.

Kenneth Sumpter spoke on the "Loss of Black Land in the Sea Islands" and demonstrated a
very recent example of "the law of no-land." It seems that the Black residents of St.
Simons were tired of being harassed to sell their land so they put up signs on their porches
stating, "Don’t Ask, Won’t Sell". However, the city counsel on St. Simons produced an
ordinance which makes it illegal to have such a sign on their property and would be fined $1,000 if
not removed in 10 days. Of course it is still legal to post "For Sale" signs.

There are also penalties assessed against those who dare to report the story of Black land loss
and the struggle of Black farmers. In Pete Scott’s, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, awards acceptance speech stated that he could not say for sure that his son’s
student loan repayment was accelerated because he wrote some articles on the Black farmers, but it
happened soon after.

The Black farmers had a chance to tell some of their stories during the open mike session. Mrs.
Vannie Howard told the story of how she was "legally" swindled twice by lawyers, surveyors
and the court as she bought land. The first time, she thought she had purchased a 192 acre tract,
only to find out recently that it is now surveyed to be 75 acres. She purchased what she thought was
46 acres, only to find out that her lawyer had registered 1.6 acres on the deed books in the county.
She cut some timber off of this land, and the man who claimed to own her land took her to court and
took her land.

Mr. William Miller related how he found that someone had borrowed $32,000 in his name in another
county in 1981 and used his land as collateral. The lenders are now trying to foreclose on his farm
because this loan was never paid on and the interest has now brought that debt up to $770,000. He
stressed how everyone who owns land needs to go to the county court house in his own county and all
the surrounding counties to find out what you own and what you owe.

Mr. Napolean Hughs choked with tears as he described how he saw his father’s manhood being
stripped, as they reduced his farming operations from 3000 acres down to 500 acres.

Mr. Henry Douglas, ex-county commissioner, admonished those who own land to check their
boundaries. "White people have a habit of moving the land boundaries and once they get them
moved and listed in the courts, it is hard to get those boundaries corrected." He said that
once he caught some white surveyor trying to put up false boundary markers on his land. He got his
shot gun and ran him off of his land and took up every stake that he has falsely placed within his
boundaries.

The problem of "legal" stealing of Black people’s lands are not limited to America.
The Honorable Simbi Mubako, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the United States, explained how white
British soldiers who fought in World Wars I and II were given the best farm land in Zimbabwe while
the Black soldiers were given bicycles. Over time this gift to white British soldiers grew to 46.6%
of Zimbabwe’s agricultural land and was comprised of the best land. At the time of Zimbabwe’s
fight for liberation from the colonial rule of Britain, the white population was 60,000 while Black
population of Zimbabwe was 12,500,000. Of the 60,000 whites only 4,000 were farmers, but that class
owned 46.7% of Zimbabwe’s farm land. These white farmers held 40% of their land for speculative
purposes and did not farm them, but would not lease them out to Blacks to grow food. The
"mystery" of Blacks starving in Africa is now revealed; whites own the best agricultural
land.

Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, and America, under Jimmy Carter, agreed in 1980 to provide the
liberated colony of Zimbabwe with $2 billion to buy the land from the white settlers who did not pay
a dime for this land. This land would then be turned over to Zimbabwe to be dispersed to her
landless poor and former liberation fighters. Britain and America reneged. And now after 20 years,
the people of Zimbabwe warned President Mugabe that they were ready to seize the land that was
rightfully theirs in an orderly or disorderly manner, depending on the government’s decision. The
government of Zimbabwe bowed to the wishes of her people, so land reform is now almost 90% complete.

We asked the Ambassador how will America’s threatened embargo affect the Zimbabwean people? The
Ambassador responded by saying, "We are willing to accept and overcome all obstacles, including
defending ourselves if necessary."

Attorney Stephon Bowens addressed the issues of land loss and retention by providing an overview
of legal tactics to use and be aware of to keep land from being taken. The document that he
presented "Ten Ways to Save Your Land" can be obtained by contacting the Land Loss
Prevention Project, PO Box 179, Durham, NC 27702 or calling (800)672-5839 or go their website at http://www.landloss.org.

Dr. Alton Thompson, Dean of the School of Agriculture at NC A&T State University, brought us
the welcomed news of a revived commitment of the 1890 Land Grant Institutions towards the needs of
Black and small farmers. Such a role was greatly reduced in the era of Chancellor Dr. Edward Fort of
NC A&T, who had almost redefined the "A" in A&T to mean "art" instead of
agriculture. And indeed in the document authored by him entitled " Strategically Approaching
the Future: 1890 Land-Grant System — A Strategic Plan", Dr. Fort significantly reduced the
emphasis on agriculture at the Historically Black Land Grant Institutions. However, leaders like Dr.
Thompson at A&T and Dr. Walter Hill, Dean of Agriculture at Tuskegee, made a commitment to those
in attendance to reverse this philosophy and resultant trends.

The conference was properly closed out in a spiritual manner by a sermon delivered by Rev. Marcus
Tillery, who also holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and a department chair at NC A&T State
University. He started his sermon by saying "You haven’t been fighting this fight just for
Black folk, but for all folk… We are going to let the world know that we intend to free them, not
just from the USDA, but from the power emanating from the darkness of this world. That’s who we
stand against. USDA is just one vehicle that we intend to move."

Rev. Tillery asked everyone to read the book "Image
of the Beast"
alongside their Holy Bible and Holy Quran to get a better understanding of
the war being waged. He said that we must put on the "full armor of God" to prevail, but
we will prevail.

Pictures from Summit

Farmer-Dec8-2005





Volume 8


Volume 8, Number
20                                                         
December 8, 2005

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

Bush’s "Red Sea" and Our Black Land

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

Three months have passed since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, however her fury is still relentless.
The Bush administration seems to have met its "Red Sea". On the day the storm hit Bush was
running west to Arizona and California trying to escape his fate. Hurricane Ivan a year earlier had
taken a similar course as Katrina, but Ivan doubled back to the Gulf Coast then struck at the
Louisiana-Texas border. Bush did not want his military assets in a position to get blindsided by
Katrina and drowned. But now Governor Blanco of Louisiana has sent over 100,000 pages of documents
that may swamp the Bush administration in blame and shame. The aftermath of Katrina left a giant
sink-hole sucking the strength and arrogance of a proud but racist nation into the bottomless pit of
bankruptcy and division.

The congress holds hearings after hearings related to Katrina and the government’s response or
lack of response. Due to the work of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Blacks got the chance on
December 6th, 2005 to address a Congressional Hearing titled "Voices from Inside the
Storm" to tell their stories about what happened during and after Katrina in the city of New
Orleans. The witnesses told the panel that the people living next to those levees in New Orleans
heard an explosion before the levees gave way and flooded their neighborhoods.

White Congressman Shays from Connecticut responded by saying, "Well, someone may have heard
a loud noise, but there must be some other explanation besides an explosion." Since America
felt that Al-Qaeda blew up the World Trade Center, why would white Americans be so quick to dismiss
the possibility that "terrorists" may have struck again? Or does white America know
something that we don’t about the true "face of terrorism"?

As I looked at C-Span I was struck by the relentless nature of the Blacks who testified to not
allow white people to intimidate them to dismiss what they believed because the whites could not
accept their point of view. Those witnesses spoke of the issues of land and the right of the
evacuees to return. They understood the opportunity for outsiders to take advantage of the flooding
of New Orleans to throw the poor out and take their land to build a "Las Vegas of the
Gulf".

They described how families were torn apart at gun point and shipped to different parts of the
country never to return again. We wonder if these victims knew that while they were being held at
gun point in America’s make shift concentration camps, America was rejecting Fidel Castro’s
offer of 1500 doctors plus medical supplies and Hugo Chavez was offering money and cheap fuel?

The witnesses described how FEMA and other government agencies lied and confused them to the
point that they did not know what to do next. These testimonies sounded very similar to Black farmer
meetings when they met with USDA officials trying to understand how they could be evicted from their
land based on not paying a loan that they did not make. Their stories reminded me of the stories of
Black farmers paying religiously on their notes to find out ten years later that none of the
payments given to their local Farmers Home Administration office ever reached Washington and the
county supervisor’s relatives bought their land at auction.

Then came the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit that was supposed to remove all the debt owed by Black
farmers to the USDA. The government instead was allowed to dole out $50,000 to each of the 13,000
Black people who prevailed in the lawsuit, but denied 8,000 other applicants among whom were the
real farmers. Somehow, the vast majority of Black farmers who owed the USDA were denied in this
lawsuit and are now facing foreclosure all over again.

Mr. Harry Young is a 78 year old Black farmer whose family has farmed for over 100 years in
Utica, Kentucky. According to Mr. Young he tried to borrow $42,000 from FHA/FSA in 1979. His loan
application was denied, but Mr. Young subsequently found out in 2004 that he has been credited with
receiving $400,000 between 1979 and 1980 that he never received and was never sent a bill or payment
notice.

Mr. Young joined the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit but was denied in 1999 because the USDA said
that Mr. Young had not been discriminated against because he got another loan in 1981 of $80,000.
Mr. Young appealed his denial and subsequently the USDA admitted in writing that they lied about the
1981 loan, but still did not inform him of his supposed 1979 and 1980 loans. Mr. Young’s appeal in
the Pigford lawsuit was still denied and on July 7th, 2005 US Marshals forcibly evicted him and his
family from their land.

Mr. Young has not given up and has hired a lawyer to fight the government’s actions. Who will pay
Mr. Young’s lawyer? To help Mr. Young you can contact Hazel Joyner Smith, program director for the
Race Relations Institute at 1620 Jackson St., Nashville, TN 37208 or call 615-329-8812.

Rep. Shays from Connecticut made another very interesting statement at those December 6th
hearings on Katrina. He said that Black people from Louisiana to Connecticut took what happened to
the victims of Katrina "personally".

The Farmer Newsletter has been trying to show Black people in the cities that they should take
the stealing of Black farmers’ land and the denial of them to make a living,
"personally". However, our Black cousins in the cities felt safe beneath their
"golden arches" as they ate that "fast-food-to-hell" burger. But in the
post-Katrina world of "we go let you Black folk die, if we get a chance", maybe the
glitter of those "golden arches" may have gotten a little dimmer.

A month after the October 15, 2005 kick off of the Millions More Movement in Washington, DC, the
leadership of the movement met back in Washington to discuss future programs and objectives. Dr.
Ridgely Abdul Mu’min presented a set of objectives coming from the Black Farmers and
Agriculturalists Association and the Ministry of Agriculture for the Nation of Islam. They included:

1. Boycott the fast food industry for at least one week and go home and cook,

2. Reinstate the African culture of land ownership and food independence by:

    a. setting up buying clubs and food coops in the cities that will eventually
become stores,

    b. supporting legislation designed to help Black farmers to keep their land
and train the next set of farmers, ie. letters to congress,

    c. checking with your family to see what land you own and taking care of that
property.

The Black people affected by Katrina know what it is like to have nothing solid to stand on,
nothing to eat and no place to go. How many more Katrinas will it take to put Black people in a
"survival mode"? Will it take a sea of red blood for Black people once again to see the
value of Black owned land?

 

Books and lectures by Dr.
Ridgely A. Mu’min

Farmer-Dec6-2011





Volume 14

Volume 14, Number 6                                                       
December 6,
2011

The Farmer

——————————————————————

Big Business Courts Black Farmers

By Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad

According to Josephine Bennett of Georgia Public Broadcasting in an article
entitled “Young Farmer Numbers Declining” she states, “Between 2002 and
2007 farmers age 25 and younger fell nearly 40-percent” in Georgia. Young
people who want to farm are complaining that “Your fertilizer and seed and
equipment are just astronomical for what your return is.” Bankers are
reluctant to lend them money and the cost of land is too high.

In the past young farmers could rely on the USDA loan programs or their local
banks to finance the purchase of their parents’ farm as they retired from
farming. This would give the elderly couple money for their retirement while
passing the farm on seamlessly to their children without having inheritance
taxes taken out of their estate if they waited until their death. However, such
loan money has dried up and many young farm children leave their childhood farm
for college and never return.

And for those who decide to make a go at farming, the labor availability to
do the hard field work has been severely shrunken by the attack on “illegal
aliens”. The Southeast Farm Press reports that studies and surveys confirm
that Georgia farmers are loosing their labor force because of immigration
legislation. Since the implementation of Georgia House Bill 87 in July of 2011
the Georgia Agribusiness Council (GAC) reported that 46 percent of the 130
employers from 61 counties were experiencing a labor shortage. Similar
immigration laws were passed this year in Alabama and Arizona with the same
negative effect on the availability of farm labor especially during the peek
harvesting period for fruits and vegetables. Farmers found it difficult to
replace the immigrant workers with local unemployed labor because of the “physical
demands of the job.”

It is most interesting to note that it was under the Republican
Administration of Ronald Reagan that launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral
trade negotiations in 1986 that lowered global tariffs and created the World
Trade Organization. Two years later his administration won approval of the
US-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Under his Immigration Reform and Control Act,
2.8 million undocumented workers were legalized and more immigrants legally
entered the United States than under any previous president since Teddy
Roosevelt. Political analysts argue that the purpose of Reagan’s free trade
and increased immigration strategy was to break the power of the unions which
was one of his campaign promises. This cheap foreign labor was also designed to
compete with Black labor to break the rise of Blacks into the middle-class.

It is also most interesting that it was Reagan in 1986 that eliminated the
Civil Rights Division of the USDA which allowed thousands of unanswered
complaints of Black farmers against local USDA employees discriminating against
them in program payments and loan programs. So while Reagan was making it easier
for big white farmers to get cheap labor to compete with the Black farmers, he
was also turning his back on Black farmers as their land was being taken from
them by these same white farmers. So now the proverbial “chickens have come
home to roost” and the crops are rotting in the fields because of the
Republican’s reverse stand on immigration and the young white farmers are now
refusing to take up their parents’ careers.

On December 3rd my wife and I attended a seminar at Tuskegee
University called “Successful Marketing Opportunities for Historically
Disadvantaged Farmers”. We have attended many “marketing” seminars before
where USDA and college professors talked about preparing to enter the commercial
and global markets, but this is the first time that actual buyers have come and
taken the lead. It was the buyers who led many of the break-out sessions and
pleaded with Black farmers to make a commitment this year to produce a variety
of vegetables for their markets. Buyers included Walmart, Whole Foods, CH
Robinson Worldwide, Inc. and Sodexo. For years I have been a part of a Southern
Georgia vegetable coop where we were trying to get into Walmart, Harvey’s,
Winn-Dixie, Kroger and other grocery chains with no success. Now the big ones
were courting us, why? Oh, they need us now because young white kids are not
going into farming and the big white farmers don’t have the labor to grow and
pick fruits and vegetables. It is also interesting that Walmart admitted that
they started courting Black farmers in Alabama in February of this year. Hum,
what happened in February? Oh, Minister Farrakhan’s Saviours’ Day Address
where he stressed that it was time for us to separate, get farm land and do for
self.

On top of this the crops that these companies kept emphasizing for us to grow
were field peas and collard greens. This was a clue that they wanted to expand
their Black customer base by offering traditional slave – I mean soul food
items in their stores in the South.

We are advocating for Black farmers to come out of hiding and take advantage
of these opportunities. Of course Black farmers, like anyone going into any type
of business relationship, should ask all the right questions. Prenuptial
agreements may apply.(smile)

We encourage more young Blacks to look at farming or other agribusiness
careers, because the tide is changing. However, we in the Ministry of
Agriculture are still pushing to establish our own line of cooperatively owned
grocery stores in the Black communities, because as fast as the big boys can
court you, they can dump you when they get a cheaper supplier. We also must
remember history as described in The Secret Relationship Between Blacks
and Jews, Volume 2
. A relationship where the purchaser of agricultural
products also reaches out to help the small farmer by lending him money to
purchase the inputs for his operation, could turn into a predatory sharecropping
relationship where the big boys get their shelves and pockets filled while the
little man goes further in debt. Plus we want to teach our people “How to Eat
to Live” and supply them with the best of foods and not the old slave
plantation varieties. Now of course field peas and collard greens without pork
may be better for them than the artificial chemicals in the junk foods,
processed foods and fast foods.

Farmer-Dec31-02






Volume 6


Volume 6, Number
6                                  
December 31, 2002

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

Give me your fast-food money!

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

 

On my way back from the Black Holocaust Conference on December 14th in New York I stopped over in
Greensboro, NC and participated in an historical joint presentation by Mr. Al Wellington,
co-founder of MATAH and myself. Mr. Wellington was invited to come to the Spiritual
Connection and Enrichment Center to give a presentation on MATAH on this Wednesday evening. Min.
Willie Muhammad also gave me a few minutes to speak on the necessity of controlling our food supply from the
“land to the man”. Little did we know how well the two subjects and presentations would
fit together even though I had never met Mr. Wellington nor seen the MATAH concept presented.

Using Mr. Wellington’s projector I gave a PowerPoint presentation which described how
“better educated” Black people lost most of the 15 million acres of land that our less
“educated” ancestors had bought fresh up from slavery. I described how the USDA used tax
money to subsidize white farmers while denying Black farmers access to their fair share of those
subsidies which over time gave white farmers an increasing comparative advantage over their Black
competitors.

I also showed how the gap has widened over the last twenty years between what the farmer receives
for his products and what the consumer pays at the retail level. In 1980 the farmer received an
aggregate of about $81.7 billion of the consumers’ food bill of $182.7 billion. However, by 1998
the consumer was spending $465.8 billion on food while the farmer’s portion of that bill was only
$118.8 billion. In other words whereas the farmer received a little under one half of the consumer’s
total food expenditures in 1980, by 1998 he received less than one forth of the consumer’s food
bill.

Where’s the money? Who is getting the bulk of your food dollar? Answer, the processors,
distributors, restaurants and retail stores are getting the bulk of the consumer’s money while the
farmers, and particularly the Black farmers, get less than crumbs.

How do consumers spend their money? According to some 1999 data found in a book entitled
“Fast Food Nation”, Americans spend over $110 billion on fast foods. This is more than
they spend on new cars, higher education, personal computers, newspapers, records or movies.

Now enters Mr. Wellington who backs up my findings and adds a lot more. Mr. Wellington, the
co-founder of MATAH with our deceased warrior, Mr. Ken Bridges , started by pointing out that
African-Americans’ consumer spending makes up the margins of profitability that is making white
corporations wealthy. For instance, Mr. Wellington pointed out that Tide is the number one laundry
detergent in America and controls 54% of Black consumer spending for laundry detergents. He asks the
rhetorical question, “can Black people produce laundry detergent?”

But on further analysis Mr. Wellington realized that more money is made through distributing a
product than manufacturing it. And there is no need to produce a product if you can not distribute
it in the system. Naïve Black would-be millionaires dream of coming up with that one great product
and getting it in all the major stores and grasping a major “market share” of that type of
commodity. Mr. Wellington pointed out that there is but so much shelf space, for say, “laundry
detergent”, in any given retail store or supermarket. There is a little something called
“slotting allowances” where you have to pay these heavy, heavy fees just to get your
product in the distribution system.

Mr. Wellington then uses the example of a breakfast cereal entrepreneur who comes up with a line
of cereal with just four flavors. “To get 100 per cent distribution in each supermarket in the
country would cost you about $17 million just to get your product on the shelf”, he said. This
of course does not include advertising or promotional stuff that you need to get your product in the
minds of your potential market.

This led to the development of a business concept where Al Wellington and Ken Bridges got
together with George Johnson and Min. Louis Farrakhan in 1985 to establish “Power”. That
“Power” program and concept was a good one but they were not able to make a go of it at
that time. However, after the 1995 Million Man March, Al Wellington and Ken Bridges got back
together and formed a new direct marketing enterprise called “MATAH”. The name was
originated by Ken Bridges. The meaning of the name and how it was formulated can be seen in the
complete video presentation of Mr. Wellington and myself, called “MATAH: The staff of
Life”. After viewing this tape which also includes footage of Mr. Ken Bridges before his
assassination, we can only now begin to understand the great loss that we as a people have suffered
through Mr. Bridges’ death.

Basically, the MATAH concept centers around taking Black manufactured or grown products and
selling them directly to Black consumers. Mr. Wellington is shooting for capturing 10% of the Black
consumer market. He said that they now have 2,600 distributors nationwide. Ken Bridges had just
closed a $100 million deal with Dudley Products to import, manufacture and distribute a
revolutionary natural pain relief oil called “GNO” made from nutmeg grown in Grenada.

You have an opportunity to be a part of a planning summit designed to be held at Dudley’s
Conference Center outside of Greensboro, NC from February 7-9, 2003 as a part of the “5th
Annual Black Land Loss Summit” where our theme is “Controlling our destiny from the land
to the man.” The only way that we can save our remaining land base is to develop our own
distribution system for food, so that the land will become valuable for what it can produce instead
of what it can be sold for.

How are we as a people going to finance this and other new production/distribution systems?
Answer, “give me your fast-food money”. I don’t want your rent money. I don’t want
your car money. I don’t want your “grocery” money. Just give me your “fast-food
money”, $110 billion and we can build a new future for Blacks and Americans as a whole.
“Give me your fast-food money”, before it kills you. Please! (Read “Fast Food to
Hell”
at www.MuhammadFarms.com.)

For more information go to www.MuhammadFarms.com or call us at (888)995-8119.



Farmer-Dec25-2005





Volume 8

Volume 8, Number
22                                       
December 25, 2005

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

Katrina washed away the masks

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

The word Katrina is a variant of "Katherine" which means "pure" or
"purifying". You can purify something by either washing it, like you would your clothes or
burning it, as you would the tip of a needle. New Orleans is known worldwide for its Mardi Gras
festival in which ordinary people dawn costumes and masks and parade around the city fancifully. The
masks disguises what is beneath, but Minister Louis Farrakhan warned Black people that God was going
to tear the mask off of white people, so that we could see their teeth. Their teeth were exposed in
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina along with what those teeth were chewing on, land.

Mayor Tommy Longo of Waveland, Miss. testified on December 7, 2005 in front of the House Select
Committee on Hurricane Katrina. Mayor Longo was noticeably shook as he described how in the
aftermath of Katrina, the animals went back to their wild nature after 3 or 4 days without food or
water. He said that they began to kill one another and attack humans.

After four days or more without food or water, Blacks trapped in the Superdome or the Convention
Center were expected to revert back to their "nature". According to Philip Parr testifying
before the same committee, the National Guard told the FEMA workers by Thursday, September 1st, that
they needed to leave because there was going to be a riot. News reports were depicting New Orleans
as falling into anarchy with bands of looters, murderers and rapists running rampant. Indeed Blacks
were depicted as returning to the "nature" that whites have projected upon them ever since
they were stolen from their native Africa and shipped to America to serve as perpetual slaves.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught that the nature of the Black man and woman was a
"righteous Muslim". This would indicate that if Blacks were put in a condition which
forced them back to a "survival mode", they would gravitate towards prayer, patience and
working together. The National guard and other forces were brought into New Orleans, not to bring
food and water, but to bring guns with orders to shoot to kill. However, when they arrived at the
Superdome and the Convention Center, they found thousands of dehydrated, hungry and tired Black
people who were helping each other survive this new "Middle Passage". They had reverted
back to their innate humanity and not the bestiality of their teeth and gun bearing oppressors.

Why were the Blacks of New Orleans portrayed so badly and treated worse? The answer lies in land
and home ownership.

According to the 2000 US Census 72.4 percent of White householders in America owned a home, while
only 46.3 percent of Black householders owned a home. Before Katrina hit, home ownership was close
to 60 per cent in the predominantly Black Lower Ninth Ward.

To show an example of the value of home ownership to a community we quote the Missoula county, MT
web site, http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/measures/HomeOwner.htm:

"Home ownership is a foundation for personal security and stability. High levels of home
ownership are also the base for stable, supportive neighborhoods…A home ownership rate of less
than 30% indicates a neighborhood with little stability, 30% to 50% indicates a neighborhood in
transition, and a neighborhood with over 50% has the capacity to provide a strong core of committed
residents."

With a home ownership percentage of 60%, the Lower Ninth Ward was headed towards commitment and
stability, not anarchy. When we look at the Lower Ninth Ward, we see that it rated higher than the
state of Louisiana in which 51.8% of Black households owned their homes. But when we take a broader
view of the national statistics, we find that the Lower Ninth Ward was doing better than most Blacks
in America with regards to home ownership.

Land ownership in America among Blacks peaked in 1910, when Blacks owned over 15 million acres of
land. By the end of the 20th century that acreage dropped to less than 3 million acres. At one time
Blacks in Louisiana owned between 40 to 50% of the farm land. Blacks in neighboring and Katrina
ravaged Mississippi owned over 60% of the farm land.

Blacks were pushed off of their land due to domestic terrorism and neglect after national
disasters. In the book "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed
America" the author, John M. Barry points out how the demographics of the Mississippi Delta
changed because of the neglect of the Black evacuees by federal, state and local officials. Once the
Blacks realized that they were left to die on those levees in 1927, they headed North. However, the
North has not proven to be the land of "milk and honey" and inclusion as it was hoped.

Today a larger percent of Black households in the South own their homes than do their cousins in
the North. According to the 2000 Census the five states in which Black households own the highest
percentage of their homes are: 1. South Carolina (60.9%), 2. Mississippi (60.7%), 3. Alabama
(57.6%), 4. North Carolina (52.5%) and 5. Louisiana (51.8%). On the other hand the states in which
Blacks had the lowest percent home ownership were: 1. Hawaii (15.7%), 2. North Dakota (17.8%), 3.
South Dakota (28.1%), 4. Rhode Island (28.2%) and 5. New York (29.1%).

Although 65% of the evacuees came from Orleans Parish, whose population was about two-thirds
black, many of them were resettled in areas where the populations were two-thirds white. Many of the
Orleans Parish evacuees were scattered to distant states where Black household home ownership
percentages are also the lowest, such as Nevada (39.8%), Utah (39.5%), California (38.8%),
Washington (37.4%), Massachusetts (31.6%), and New York (29.1%).

FEMA is not even allowing state, local or national representatives of the evacuees to communicate
with them directly. So how can the wishes of the evacuees from Louisiana and Mississippi be
represented in developing proposals and legislation that will affect their property?

Will the aspirations of those Black home owners who wish to return to New Orleans be trumped by
the "Donald Ducks" (theme parks) or "Donald Trumps" (gambling casinos) of this
world, since the "masks" have been removed?

==============================================================

Comments:

Alafia/Greetings to All, As I read the column/article, it reminded me of the Yoruba Diety/Goddess
Oya (who destroys for rebuilding, but also exposes).

Also, if we take inventory of where we live (gentrification, redlining etc), we can see a clear
attack on taking, buying out the communities of African descent. Here in Greensboro Old Asheboro
(one of the middle class "Black" communities) is being buildup for the "rebels".
There are condos that are out priced as well as buying of "abandoned or lack of care" of
homes in this prestigious community and has been redistricted to exclude. This community is in
walking distance to "downtown" Greensboro where they are continuing to renovate and
buildup for "the people" (the Greensboro of Old-where you and I were "not"
welcome). Elders become unable to do upkeep or die and the younger family members leave, don’t want
to come back and live

 


Books and lectures by Dr.
Ridgely A. Mu’min

Farmer-Dec25-2004





Volume 8

Volume 8, Number
3                                
December 25, 2004

The Farmer

———————————————————————–

Investment Requires Security

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

On December 10, 2003 a Black man was shot twice in the head and killed by a member of the
Muscogee County Sheriff’s Department on Interstate Highway 185 in Columbus, Ga. On December 31,
2003 attorneys for TV station WRBL and the Ledger Enquirer newspaper filed a suit against the
Muscogee County Sheriff’s Department in order to get the videotape of the incident. It was almost
a year before the video tape was released on December 1, 2004.

I reviewed this tape which is available over the Internet. What I saw can only be described as a
pack of armed and trained "dogs", at least 6 to 8, dragging a Black man out of his car
with his hands held up in the air, throwing him to the ground and shooting him in the head. This
video was held back as evidence from the Muscogee County Grand Jury which decided on November 23,
2004 not to bring charges against the shooter, former deputy David Glisson. According to Sheriff
Johnson, deputy Glisson’s ‘feel the barrel’ technique was one reason for his termination, but not
the murdering of a defenseless Black man.

What is this ‘feel the barrel’ technique other than another form of scientific intimidation
or "Terrorism"? How many times had this technique been used to terrorize young Black men
into a state of "shock and awe" for the white power structure?

The psyche of the human being is a very fragile entity. For proper development it requires a long
period of protection and guidance from parents and community to develop into a healthy and
productive entity useful to the members of its society. Security is a prerequisite to the individual
or community to make the necessary personal and group investments needed to sustain a civilized
society and existence. Otherwise the human would be forced to scavenge and kill to survive like any
other animal. Therefore any continuous perceived threat to the security of individuals or the group
produces an environment that leads to the destruction of that community or civilization.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew the importance of justice and the security that a just
environment produced. He spelled it out plainly every week on the back of the Muhammad Speaks
Newspaper. I encourage everyone to read each of the 10 points in "What the Muslims Want"
and 12 points of What the Muslims Believe" as placed in the inside cover of the Final Call
Newspaper published by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. However, for this analysis we will
focus on number 6 of "What The Muslims Want." It states:

"6. We want an immediate end to the police brutality and mob attacks against the so-called
Negro throughout the United States.

We believe that the Federal government should intercede to see that black men and women tried in
white courts receive justice in accordance with the laws of the land – or allow us to build a new
nation for ourselves, dedicated to justice, freedom and liberty."

In the Kenneth Walker case we have a Black man killed but white folks did not even want his
killer to face trial. What type of a message does this send out to the Black community? We argue
that the message is not only well understood by the Black community but also by the scientists of
the white community.

Let me quote from The Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank) lecture by Conrad Burns on
March 28, 2003 called "Beyond the Middle East: In Search of Energy Security." He states:
"Private capital investment requires political stability and the rule
of law. Contracts must be honored, corruption must disappear, and the regulatory regime must be
favorable to attract investors."

Where is this "stability and the rule of law" when it comes to justice in every day
life of Black people in America?

Another scholar, Keith S. Rosen, puts it another way in his analysis of "Suggested
Principles for Regulating Foreign Investment" done for the Consulting Assistance on Economic
Reform (CAER II) on April of 1998:

"The guaranty of fair and equitable treatment covers both personnel and property. Investment
requires security, and it is people, rather than things, that feel secure or insecure. It is
essential people feel secure not only with respect to property rights but also as to their own
persons."

So in other words, whites know that they must feel secure before they make any long term
investments, especially on foreign soil. Therefore, what can make a Black person who is supposed to
look after the well being of the Black community not understand that whites know what they are doing
when they purposely produce a state of lawlessness and Terrorism in the Black community? Whites did
this before in the string of lynching at the turn of the 20th century. Whites understood the power
of Terrorism in destroying the economic development in the Black community of Tulsa, Okla., when
they burned down 600 businesses in 1921. The devastating affect of such acts of Terrorism is spelled
out more completely in The Farmer Newsletter article of September 19, 2004 called "The
Black Belt that Should Have Been
."

White folk study war and the psychology of warfare. Let us refer you to a definition of war from
Carl Von Clausewitz, an eighteenth and nineteenth century Prussian soldier and writer whose book,
"On War" is a central part of the curriculum of western military training. He states,
"War therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will."

So what is the "will" of white folk? Is it to make the world safe for
"democracy" or make the world safe for white "capitalism"? In the meantime, the
Black community and people are afraid to invest in self and community for fear of "terroristic
threats" as exemplified by the ‘feel the barrel’ techniques taught and approved by the
armed occupiers of the Black community called "law enforcement agencies"?

Such brutality with its psychologically destructive affects must be met with a sober and measured
response to inform both the white and Black communities that such behavior is not acceptable. Acts
of Terrorism and war against the Black community and psyche must be dealt with in a way that our
Black youth will know that it is okay to invest in their own education and have dreams of financial
success and independence while they live.

Perhaps a little more destruction, like what happened with the hurricanes which lashed
America this past summer, may incline the hearts of our enemies and courts of this land towards justice.
In fact, the day after the Grand Jury decided not to indict Mr. Glisson a severe weather and tornado
watch warning was issued for the Columbus area for November 24th.

Since it has been made evident over the last 400 years that white people are incapable of giving
justice to their once slaves, like the Children of Israel under the Pharaoh of the Bible, should we
not now pray to our God (Allah) to punish the enemies of freedom, justice and equality for Black
people? A suggested format for such a
prayer can be found on the MuhammadFarms.com website under the Farmer Newsletter article "A Prayer for Survival."